José Bosco Camacho Miñano.
La Mancha is a region located in the centre-south of Spain. Its territory is share between the provinces of Ciudad Real, Toledo, Cuenca and Albacete. This region is famous all around the world because of Miguel de Cervantes’ work “Don Quixote de La Mancha.” It is a flat region where aridity is the predominant tendency but also it is possible to find lakes full of water.
La Mancha owes its name to the Arabic term “Mantxa” that means literally “dry land.” But like in most of Spanish territories, the name also has another explanation: many experts in the area say that the name La Mancha comes from the following expression: the wider (la más ancha). Other acceptable theory asserts that La Mancha is named in that way because if you see the physical map of Spain, this region looks like a brand, a mark due to the flatness. A good example of this fact is that turning the head to the right, and then to the left, you always will see flatness. There is also an explanation that is a local belief but it is complex to understand unless knowing a little about Spanish society at the turn of the 16th Century: Cervantes uses La Mancha as settings of his famous work because it talk about a nobleman whose most of his ancestors were Jewish. In that age, in Spain, there was a rule establishing that people whose ancestors were not Christians in actions and in mind, cannot be part of the nobility. To mock this social class, Cervantes chose as a “hidalgo” (a lower nobleman) a character that in addition of being fool, his ancestors were Jewish or even Muslims. It is interesting seeing how the author wanted to discredit Spanish nobility through a fool low-nobleman reflecting how at this time, upper-classes in Spain were decaying.
As you can see, there are many theories about the name. Apart from this I encourage you to visit this to-discover region. I come from a town located in the heart of La Mancha and I assure that worth a visit.
